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When I moved from Montana to Texas because of my husband's job, I built a very nice studio by enclosing a double carport with a view of tropical lush greenery and exotic birds like green jays, several types of heron, pelicans, osprey, parrots, golden hooded woodpeckers, three types of kingfishers, ibis, anhingas, cormorants, etc.
The house is sort of in a surburbia area but our yard is very secluded and beautiful. I like to work and listen to the birds. If I hear one I don't recognize I will drop work and go look for the source of the song. I found two love birds in my Sabal Palm tree one time. Picture 1,
All this has had an impact on my imagery in my work.
I also built a kiln shed for my electric kilns and raku klins. The rain here can be torrential including hurricanes. My dream raku kiln is protected from weather and has easy access to outside for unloading. Picture 2

So seriously: I wouldn't do anything else even if i did actually have to starve. My studio is my oasis. It is a large rented space, so no distractions from things happening at home. I can tell you that when I unlock the doors in the morning, its still as exciting and wonderful as the first day.

Amusing: As i do get quite a bit of foot traffic the pubilc at large can be very amusing. I am sure that most of you have heard all the weird excuses to not to actually buy something. Too large too small perfect but the wrong colour ect... I personally love my auntie did pottery once... I had a couple come in the other day and the man sort of takes me aside and whispers to me can I ask you a personal question. I'm thinking ok.....and the geezer actually says "Do you make a living at this?" Huh!? You get all flavours

A woman was clutching one of my pots at a craft fair and told me how much she liked it. Then she added, "Is your studio at the Torpedo Factory?" (one of the upscale galleries/artist studio spaces/lofts in town). No, I replied, I work out of my garage studio at home. She looked at me, looked at the pot, placed the pot back on a shelf, and walked out. As they say, location is everything.

A woman was clutching one of my pots at a craft fair and told me how much she liked it. Then she added, "Is your studio at the Torpedo Factory?" (one of the upscale galleries/artist studio spaces/lofts in town). No, I replied, I work out of my garage studio at home. She looked at me, looked at the pot, placed the pot back on a shelf, and walked out. As they say, location is everything.

I had a similar thing happen to me years ago. A man was going on and on about how much he liked my large jars. He was holding a large one >24" tall and was walking to the front of the booth with me. He asked me where I was from, mid west or west. I told him I was local. He carried the pot back carefully, wished me a good day and left. Oh well.

Getting back to the purpose of this thread, "Tell us a story about your studio", I'm very excited about switching from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs! This is not something I feel comfortable jumping into all at once so I am replacing the incandescent bulbs with the fluorescent bulbs as the incandescent bulbs burn out. Or, at least, that was my original plan, before I realized that even incandescent bulbs last a long time. Now, I plan to change out one bulb a month even if it has not burned out.

Getting back to the purpose of this thread, "Tell us a story about your studio", I'm very excited about switching from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs! This is not something I feel comfortable jumping into all at once so I am replacing the incandescent bulbs with the fluorescent bulbs as the incandescent bulbs burn out. Or, at least, that was my original plan, before I realized that even incandescent bulbs last a long time. Now, I plan to change out one bulb a month even if it has not burned out.

Jim

Well that is wonderful news....let us know when you decided to tune your piano and your tux comes back from the cleaners. It is important to me T

I have had a number of studios before this current one. When I lived in upstate New York as a caretaker for a religious estate, I had a cabin with dutch doors and a woodburning stove. I split wood for for the stove. I used an oil heater for overnight to avoid freezing. Once when I was firing, my 4 -100 gallon propane tanks were freezing, a group of nuns on retreat boiled water to pour on my tanks. They had known the Catonville 5. ..sort of radical nuns. I met some interesting people there. In 1977 I built a Rammed earth studio in Huntley , Montana and published an article about it in CM. After I retired from teaching I rented space in a warehouse where other artists worked. That was nice having company and organizing Art Walk nights and open house.

My current studio is very peaceful and solitary. I am enjoying the natural beauty and incorporating it into my work.

Getting back to the purpose of this thread, "Tell us a story about your studio", I'm very excited about switching from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs! This is not something I feel comfortable jumping into all at once so I am replacing the incandescent bulbs with the fluorescent bulbs as the incandescent bulbs burn out. Or, at least, that was my original plan, before I realized that even incandescent bulbs last a long time. Now, I plan to change out one bulb a month even if it has not burned out.

Jim

Well that is wonderful news....let us know when you decided to tune your piano and your tux comes back from the cleaners. It is important to me T

Getting back to the purpose of this thread, "Tell us a story about your studio", I'm very excited about switching from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs! This is not something I feel comfortable jumping into all at once so I am replacing the incandescent bulbs with the fluorescent bulbs as the incandescent bulbs burn out. Or, at least, that was my original plan, before I realized that even incandescent bulbs last a long time. Now, I plan to change out one bulb a month even if it has not burned out.

Jim

Well that is wonderful news....let us know when you decided to tune your piano and your tux comes back from the cleaners. It is important to me T

After building my first studio in the basement ... UGH - awful, thank goodness we moved ... I built my next one on the second floor of our home. Put extra windows in as well as two sky lights. Shelves on every wall.
I fire downstairs in the garage and people think I am crazy to haul my clay upstairs and down again ... but it is worth it to have the light and be in the treetops.
For some reason, I thought pink walls would be cheerful ... now am too lazy to take everything off them in order to re-paint.

Something about my studio.......took over two rooms in our basement. Small room has a wheel, wedging table, drying shelves, storage for molds, boxes of clay, computer for playing teaching DVD’s and other misc. items.

Larger room has TV, stereo/CD/DVD/VCR equipment all in a cabinet, glazes, hand building table/chair/tool storage area, exercise equipment, and other misc. items. Basically I took over these rooms including furniture which I adapted into storage except for the electronics cabinet and exercise equipment (yes we use the exercise equipment). This is not my idea of the perfect studio, but for now it is a place to play in the mud from home!

Kiln is located in our garage; the area has work table, shelves, chair, area for spraying glazes, and other misc. items. Future plans are to have my studio on ground level either connected or not to our house with everything including kiln. What is holding me back, full time job and money.

Our studio is in a commercial building in a residential area. At the end of the day my husband was talking with our neighbor and looking out the window at a squirrel standing in the middle of the road. Right before their eyes a hawk swoops down and snatches the squirrel in it's talons and flies off with it. Life and death in nature, all viewed from the pottery studio.

My husband built a 10 x 12 foot shelving unit for the studio which must have weighed 300-400 pounds. It was built on the ground and then had to be stood up, with me pulling on a rope laced through a pulley and the husband lifting from the ground. Once I reached the tiled front entry I started losing my footing and sliding back, he managed to power through it.

A woman was clutching one of my pots at a craft fair and told me how much she liked it. Then she added, "Is your studio at the Torpedo Factory?" (one of the upscale galleries/artist studio spaces/lofts in town). No, I replied, I work out of my garage studio at home. She looked at me, looked at the pot, placed the pot back on a shelf, and walked out. As they say, location is everything.

No, not location, but education. Next time say,"No I have my own studio." Then give a business card.

After building my first studio in the basement ... UGH - awful, thank goodness we moved ... I built my next one on the second floor of our home. Put extra windows in as well as two sky lights. Shelves on every wall.I fire downstairs in the garage and people think I am crazy to haul my clay upstairs and down again ... but it is worth it to have the light and be in the treetops.For some reason, I thought pink walls would be cheerful ... now am too lazy to take everything off them in order to re-paint.

Chris;The term is ###### house pink. My sister, who is an interior designer in Toronto, would charge you $85.00 an hour to tell you this.I worked in a studio on the second floor of a warehouse for 26 years. The light was fabulous. Didn't want to do the stairs anymore, so built a studio in my back yard. The walls aren't pink.TJR.:Psrc="http://ceramicartsda...lt/tongue.gif">[that word started with a "w".]

Gosh, that's exactly what the paint chip sample called it! Isn't it hideous?
My grandchildren are allowed to write and draw all over my studio walls so hopefully someday, as they grow taller, it will all be covered.

When I bought my place back in 73 it came with an old one car shack-I’m not using the word garage as that is way to nice a description for this building. It was an old wood structure built on redwood beams and rough logs on the ground with no windows dark like cave with lots of holes in it. The floor was dirt and rocks. The interior was 11x23. The gable end facing the road had two small swinging doors that fit a small model T.

I had no idea or funds to think NEW shop (at that point I had no idea clay would be my life’s work) so I started in that 1stsummer making this a studio-I recall getting several bats out and blacking the large holes. I found an old dried flicker (bird) skeleton in rafters and its still on the wall today.

The first task was scrounging free and lost cost materials,as I was a collage student with no money. I got windows from old buildings being torn down and wood as well. I bought some second hand redwood 2x12s for a floor and laid down some salvaged 2x4 for support on firebricks for support and to keep them off the ground. I had salvaged about every fire brick I could find in this dying lumber area from old mills.

Over the next few years the shop was rehabbed on the cheap.I added water lines and an old sink as well as finally bringing in underground power.Also a gas line from gas kiln 10 feet away for a used small gas heater to dry winter time pots. This old building has had post and powder beetles and termites,which eat any part made with fir. The redwood slows them down.

I added insulation to walls and ceiling and covered the interior walls with redwood 1x6 scrap from the mills. The singles rotted and started leaking in the 80’s so I covered the roof with used corrugated metal roof.

Fast-forward to year 2000 and I added an 8x14 new construction (on cement foundation) throwing green room onto end of shop. I insulted the floor on up. Used new millguard heat reflective windows for tons of south light.I used pressure treated lumber at the connection point to slow the bugs down. The new addition faces south into the yard-the clay enters a shed (years supply) onthe other end next to road-I have to walk the clay around thru a gate to stock pile a ton into shop.

This old shop is not ideal but has served me well. I think it’s from the 40’s originally.Its amazing to me to think about 8-10 tons a year going thru these doors several times.

Other than the gas heater I choose to keep all kilns away from this tinderbox.

The photo of the old door on side has a poster from 1974 collage pottery sale stuck to it still.

It’s a great place to work cool in summer warm in winter. On the outside I have stuck a few things the cat drug home.I took these photos today in the rain.

When my wife and I decided to move away from the city to raise our kids she told me all she dreamed of was owning a property with a barn. Well we could not afford the property but I still built her a barn in the back of our yard in the middle of suburbia. It was only 12 x 20 but it was definately a barn. We never had any animals in it, besides our kids, who played endlessly in the loft while the lower half became a shop/storage/get-away for Mom and Dad. Who would guess that all these years later her barn would slowly transform into my pottery studio. With it's little antique German woodstove and it's coziness and character it has become the place where I go to create and be happy. My wife loves seeing me out there and is proud of the pots I am making. I think she had something in mind all along when she asked me to build her a barn.
I have managed to get power out to it for my electric kiln and have become very creative with space saving ideas that make my studio very functional indeed. I have had as much fun at turning this space into a studio as I did building the original structure. Whenever our nieces or nephews come by for a visit they always know where to find me and nothing makes them happier than going out to the barn to play with clay.
Me too !